• Childhood Kidney Diseases
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.79-88
• /
• 2015

Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) has emerged as one of the most promising biomarkers of renal epithelial injury. Numerous studies have presented the diagnostic and prognostic utility of urinary and plasma NGAL in patients with acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, renal injury after kidney transplantation, and other renal diseases. NGAL is a member of the lipocalin family that is abundantly expressed in neutrophils and monocytes/macrophages and is a mediator of the innate immune response. The biological significance of NGAL to hamper bacterial growth by sequestering iron-binding siderophores has been studied in a knock-out mouse model. Besides neutrophils, NGAL is detectable in most tissues normally encountered by microorganisms, and its expression is upregulated in epithelial cells during inflammation. A growing number of studies have supported the clinical utility of NAGL for detecting invasive bacterial infections. Several investigators including our group have reported that measuring NGAL can be used to help predict and manage urinary tract infections and acute pyelonephritis. This article summarizes the biology and pathophysiology of NGAL and reviews studies on the implications of NGAL in various renal diseases from acute kidney injury to acute pyelonephritis.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.50 no.6
• /
• pp.595-602
• /
• 2017

Purpose: Malnutrition is a major concern in patients with gynecologic cancer receiving chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of malnutrition in patients with gynecologic cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Methods: A prospective, observational study was conducted on a total of 99 subjects who were treated at a tertiary hospital in Korea. Data regarding demographic, clinical, nutritional, and psychological characteristics at baseline and survival were obtained. Results: Performance status, nutritional status, depression, and annual income were significantly different between survivors and non-survivors. Multivariate Cox modeling after adjusting for other factors showed that a malnourished status in patients with gynecologic cancer undergoing chemotherapy was a significant and independent negative influencing factor for survival. Conclusion: These findings provide evidence that adequate nutritional assessment and intervention may assist in improving survival in patients with gynecologic cancer undergoing chemotherapy.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
• /
• v.42 no.sup1
• /
• pp.1-5
• /
• 2008

Primary brain tumor accounts for 1.4% of entire cancer. For males between the ages of 15 and 34 years, central nervous system tumors account for the leading cause of cancer death. $^{18}F-FDG$ PET has been reported that it can provide important diagnostic information relating to tumor grading and differentiation from non- tumorous condition. In addition, the degree of FDG metabolism carries prognostic significance. By mapping the metabolic pattern of heterogeneous tumors, $^{18}F-FDG$ PET can aid in targeting for stereotactic biopsy by selecting the subregions within the tumor that are most hypermetabolic and potentially have the highest grade. According to clinical research data, FOG PET is expected to be a helpful diagnostic tool in the management of brain tumors.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.170-175
• /
• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to predict treatment outcome of chemotherapy compared with and bone marrow transplantation in acute leukemia patients. Methods: We respectively reviewed the characteristics of subjects, cytokine, complete remission time and survival time of 111 patients with acute leukemia, admitted in St. Mary's hospital, between July 2007 and August 2008. Results: The complete remission rate with chemotherapy group was 70.8% and bone marrow transplantation group was 54.3% but without statistically significance. The prognostic factors related with survival is classification of acute leukemia and complete remission time. Conclusion: This study suggests a need for nursing research and nursing intervention for acute leukemia patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.199-203
• /
• 2012

Purpose: To evaluate the prognostic value of serum CYFRA21-1, CEA and hemoglobin levels regarding long-term survival of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Methods: Age, gender, Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), tumor location, tumor length, T stage, N stage and serum hemoglobin, and CYFRA21-1 and CEA levels before concurrent CRT were retrospectively investigated and related to outcome in 113 patients receiving 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin combined with radiotherapy for ESCC. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze prognosis, the log-rank to compare groups, the Cox proportional hazards model for multivariate analysis, and ROC curve analysis for assessment of predictive performance of biologic markers. Results: The median survival time was 20.1 months and the 1-, 2-, 3-, 5- year overall survival rates were 66.4%, 43.4%, 31.9% and 15.0%, respectively. Univariate analysis showed that factors associated with prognosis were KPS, tumor length, T-stage, N-stage, hemoglobin, CYFRA21-1 and CEA level. Multivariate analysis showed T-stage, N-stage, hemoglobin, CYFRA21-1 and CEA level were independent predictors of prognosis. By ROC curve, CYFRA21-1 and hemoglobin showed better predictive performance for OS than CEA (AUC= 0.791, 0.704, 0.545; P=0.000, 0.000, 0.409). Conclusions: Of all clinicopathological and molecular factors, T stage, N stage, hemoglobin, CYFRA21-1 and CEA level were independent predictors of prognosis for patients with ESCC treated with concurrent CRT. Among biomarkers, CYFRA21-1 and hemoglobin may have a better predictive potential than CEA for long-term outcomes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.9
• /
• pp.4413-4416
• /
• 2012

Aim: Individual differences in chemosensitivity and clinical outcome in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy may be due to genetic factors. Our study aimed to investigate the prognostic role of GSTP1, XRCC1 and XRCC3 in NSCLC patients treated with chemotherapy. Methods: A total of 460 cases were consecutively selected from The Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University between Jan. 2003 to Nov. 2006, and all were followed-up until Nov. 2011. Genotyping of GSTP1 Ile105Val, XRCC1 Arg194Trp, XRCC1 Arg399Gln and XRCC3 Thr241Met was conducted by duplex polymerase-chain-reaction with confronting-two-pair primer methods. Results: Patients with GSTP Val/Val exhibited a shorter survival time, and had a 1.89 fold greater risk of death than did those with the IIe/IIe genotype. For XRCC1 Arg194Trp, the variant genotype Trp/Trp was significantly associated with a decreased risk of death from NSCLC when compared with the Arg/Arg. Individuals carrying XRCC1 399Gln/Gln genotype had a longer survival time, with a lowered risk of death from NSCLC. Conclusion: This study indicated that GSTP1 Ile105Val, XRCC1 Arg194Trp and XRCC1Arg399Gln genes have a role in modifying the effect of platinum-based chemotherapy for NSCLC patients in a Chinese population. Our findings provide information for therapeutic decisions for individualized therapy in NSCLC cases.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.19
• /
• pp.8351-8359
• /
• 2014

Background: Recent epidemiological data have implicated human papilloma virus (HPV) infection in the pathogenesis of head and neck cancers, especially oropharyngeal cancers. Although, HPV has been detected in varied amounts in persons with oral dysplasia, leukoplakias and malignancies, its involvement in oral tongue carcinogenesis remains ambiguous. Materials and Methods: HPV DNA prevalence was assessed by PCR with formalin fixed paraffin embedded sections (n=167) of oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma patients and the physical status of the HPV16 DNA was assessed by qPCR. Immunohistochemistry was conducted for p16 evaluation. Results: We found the HPV prevalence in tongue cancers to be 51.2%, HPV 16 being present in 85.2% of the positive cases. A notable finding was a very poor concordance between HPV 16 DNA and p16 IHC findings (kappa<0.2). Further molecular classification of patients based on HPV16 DNA prevalence and p16 overexpression showed that patients with tumours showing p16 overexpression had increased hazard of death (HR=2.395; p=0.005) and disease recurrence (HR=2.581; p=0.002) irrespective of their HPV 16 DNA status. Conclusions: Our study has brought out several key facets which can potentially redefine our understanding of tongue cancer tumorigenesis. It has emphatically shown p16 overexpression to be a single important prognostic variable in defining a high risk group and depicting a poorer prognosis, thus highlighting the need for its routine assessment in tongue cancers. Another significant finding was a very poor concordance between p16 expression and HPV infection suggesting that p16 expression should possibly not be used as a surrogate marker for HPV infection in tongue cancers. Interestingly, the prognostic significance of p16 overexpression is different from that reported in oropharyngeal cancers. The mechanism of HPV independent p16 over expression in oral tongue cancers is possibly a distinct entity and needs to be further studied.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.242-252
• /
• 2018

Purpose: Surgical resection for gastric adenocarcinoma is associated with significant post-operative morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic significance of sarcopenia in patients undergoing resection for gastric adenocarcinoma with respect to post-operative morbidity and survival. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on a cohort of consecutive patients who underwent surgical resection for gastric adenocarcinoma between 2008 and 2014. Patient demographics, radiological parameters, and pathological data were collected. OsiriX software (Pixmeo) was used to measure skeletal muscle area, which was normalized for height to calculate skeletal muscle index. Results: A total of 56 patients (41 male, 15 female; mean age, $68.4{\pm}11.9years$) met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 36% (20 of 56) of the patients were sarcopenic pre-operatively. Both sarcopenic and non-sarcopenic patient groups were equally matched with the exception of weight and body mass index (P=0.036 and 0.001, respectively). Sarcopenia was associated with a decreased overall survival (log-rank P=0.003) and was an adverse prognostic predictor of overall survival in multivariate analysis (hazard ratio, 10.915; P=0.001). Sarcopenia was a predictor of serious in-hospital complications in multivariate analysis (odds ratio, 3.508; P=0.042). Conclusions: In patients undergoing curative resection for gastric cancer, there was a statistically significant association between sarcopenia and both decreased overall survival and serious post-operative complications. The measurement and reporting of skeletal muscle index on pre-operative computed tomography should be considered.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.227-232
• /
• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of the lymph node ratio (LNR), which was defined as the proportion of involved nodes of all dissected nodes, in pN1 breast cancer. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of patients with pN1 breast cancer (n = 144) treated at Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center, Daegu, Korea between 2001 and 2010. The median age was 46 years (range, 27 to 66 years). The LNR was 0.01-0.15 (low LNR) in 130 patients and >0.15 (high LNR) in 14 patients. Sixty-five patients (45.1%) had T1 tumors, 74 (51.4%) had T2 tumors, and 5 (3.5%) had T3 tumors. Eighty-eight patients (61.1%) underwent total mastectomy and 56 (38.9%) underwent partial mastectomy. Fifty-nine patients (41.0%) underwent radiotherapy and 12 (8.3%) underwent regional radiotherapy. The median follow-up period was 65 months. Results: The 5- and 10-year disease-free survival (DFS) rates were 92.7% and 82.4%, respectively. Univariate analyses revealed that high LNR (p = 0.004), total mastectomy (p = 0.006), no local radiotherapy (p = 0.036), and stage T2 or T3 (p = 0.010) were associated with worse DFS. In multivariable analysis, only high LNR (p = 0.015) was associated with worse DFS. Conclusion: High LNR is an independent prognostic factor in pN1 breast cancer and could be an indication for adjuvant radiotherapy in these patients.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.52 no.4
• /
• pp.293-299
• /
• 2012

Objective : To evaluate the surgical efficacy of and factors associated with decompressive craniectomy in patients with an internal carotid artery (ICA) territory infarction. Methods : Seventeen patients (8 men and 9 women, average age 61.53 years, range 53-77 years) were treated by decompressive craniectomy for an ICA territory infarction at our institute. We retrospectively reviewed medical records, radiological findings, and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) at presentation and before surgery. Clinical outcomes were assessed using the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS). Results : Of the 17 patients, 15 (88.24%) achieved a poor outcome (Group A, GOS 1-3) and 2 (11.76%) a good outcome (Group B, GOS 4-5). The mortality rate at one month after surgery was 52.9%. Average preoperative NIHSS was $27.6{\pm}10.88%$ in group A and $10{\pm}4.24%$ in group B. Mean cerebral infarction fraction at the septum pellucidum level before surgery in group A and B were 33.67% and 23.72%, respectively. Mean preoperative NIHSS (p=0.019) and cerebral infarction fraction at the septum pellucidum level (p=0.017) were found to be significantly associated with a better outcome. However, no preexisting prognostic factor was found to be of statistical significance. Conclusion : The rate of mortality after ICA territory infarction treatment is relatively high, despite positive evidence for surgical decompression, and most survivors experience severe disabilities. Our findings caution that careful consideration of prognostic factors is required when considering surgical treatment.